About Marinette Marine Corporation Shipyard Marinette Wisconsin
Marinette Marine Corporation traces its roots to the late nineteenth century, when the upper Midwest’s timber and industrial economy made the banks of the Menominee River — which forms the Wisconsin-Michigan border — a natural site for heavy manufacturing and shipbuilding. The facility has operated under various ownership arrangements over the decades and built vessels for both government and military customers.
The shipyard is best known for producing:
- Patrol craft
- Mine countermeasure ships
- Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)
- Constellation-class frigates
The facility occupies a large industrial footprint along the Menominee River waterfront and has employed thousands of skilled tradespeople throughout its history. Marinette is located in Marinette County in northeastern Wisconsin, approximately 50 miles south of Green Bay and across the river from Menominee, Michigan. Workers have historically been drawn from communities throughout northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
From roughly the 1930s through the late 1970s, and in some cases into the 1980s, shipbuilding operations at facilities like Marinette Marine reportedly relied on asbestos-containing materials as standard components of ship construction, repair, and outfitting. Asbestos use in American shipyards was essentially universal during that era, driven by the material’s heat resistance, fire-retardant properties, durability, and low cost. Federal Navy procurement specifications for many vessel types explicitly called for asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, packing materials, and fireproofing compounds. Shipyards building to those specifications had little practical choice but to incorporate these materials. Engine rooms, boiler spaces, turbine rooms, and machinery spaces aboard naval vessels operate at extreme temperatures and must meet strict fire safety standards. Asbestos-containing materials were the standard engineering solution to those demands for decades.
General Equipment at Marinette Marine Corporation Shipyard Marinette Wisconsin
The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.
Documented Asbestos Evidence — Wisconsin
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Wisconsin DNR) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.
No Wisconsin DNR NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.
Material Categories in Documented Records
The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Marinette Marine Corporation Shipyard Marinette Wisconsin
Asbestos-containing materials did not endanger only the workers who directly handled them. Ship construction brings multiple trades into the same confined spaces simultaneously — vessel hulls, engine rooms, pipe tunnels, boiler rooms. Any trade working aboard vessels under construction, or in the surrounding facility, may have been exposed to asbestos fibers released by coworkers in adjacent areas. Occupational health researchers call this bystander exposure, and Wisconsin courts have consistently recognized it as a valid basis for asbestos disease claims.
Thermal insulation workers — called “asbestos workers” or “laggers” in older industrial practice — faced the most direct and concentrated exposure. Insulators at Marinette Marine were responsible for:
- Measuring, cutting, and fitting insulation
- Applying thermal insulation products to pipes, boilers, bulkheads, and machinery
- Handling raw insulation materials and cutting pipe covering to length
- Mixing insulating cements and coatings containing asbestos-containing components
Each of these tasks could release high concentrations of airborne asbestos fibers in the immediate work area. Asbestos Workers Local 19 has historically represented thermal insulation workers throughout Wisconsin, including workers in the northeastern part of the state who may have worked at Marinette Marine and at other Wisconsin industrial facilities. Insulator apprentices and journeymen affiliated with Local 19 who worked at Marinette Marine during the peak decades of asbestos use — roughly the 1940s through the 1970s — may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials from multiple manufacturers on a daily basis.
Pipefitters and steamfitters at Marinette Marine were responsible for installing, connecting, and testing the extensive pipe systems aboard vessels under construction. Their work placed them in direct contact with pipe insulation, gaskets, and packing materials throughout the construction process. Removing existing pipe insulation to access flanges, cutting asbestos-containing gasket stock to fit, and handling valve and pipe fitting components could release asbestos fibers directly into their breathing zone.
Wisconsin — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Wisconsin law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (Wis. Stat. § 893.54). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.
The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.
Practical first steps
- Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Wisconsin experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.
Asbestos-Related Diseases — Wisconsin
Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.
Mesothelioma
A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.
Asbestosis
A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.
Lung Cancer
Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.
Other Recognized Diseases
Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.
If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Workers have historically been drawn from communities throughout northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.Data Sources — Wisconsin
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.